The credits got my hopes up; that's pretty bad. Darkness was sub-par in nearly every aspect: the sound, the visual direction, the plot, pacing, characters, everything.
The movie relies on "jumpies" which is not my idea of the best route for a horror film to take. The music is louder than the dialogue which forces you to kind of crane your ear to hear and then BAM! Jumpy! Which is way louder than either music or dialogue. I also thought the sound effects that were used seemed like they came from a 1001 sound effects CD.
Probably the most painful aspect were the characters. They were like cardboard cutout people. They didn't really do much. They were all stuck doing one action. The dad kept being angry and weird, the mom kept denying crap, and the son kept being abused. The daughter whom the audience is meant to identify with, notices the oddities going on but just gripes about it a little to her male friend. Other than observing, she doesn't do anything until the end of the film. So, we are left with a lead who is just as powerless to make the plot proceed as we, the viewers, are.
Unlike some of the other comments here, I didn't find the plot/ending confusing. I did find it way too late in the film. Satanic rituals are inherently scary! Why didn't they introduce that little tidbit until the ending was already under way?
In the tradition of the shining, the movie is separated into days that flash on the screen. Thank goodness we had at least a chronological plan for the plot, because it might never have resolved itself otherwise. Also, we have a psycho father who we assume is going to kill the kids. Like MANY other horror flicks, only the spooky, isolated boy can see the ghosts. You've got the dark, closed in atmosphere of The Others, minus the slow building tension. There is the finding of the satanic chamber beneath the house ala Amityville Horror. All these stolen concepts are just that, concepts. Darkness never finds its own identity and thus can't offer us anything but a mishmash of others' ideas.
If Anna Paquin wasn't so hot, I wouldn't have held out til the end. Oh, and she's a good actress too. ;)
The movie relies on "jumpies" which is not my idea of the best route for a horror film to take. The music is louder than the dialogue which forces you to kind of crane your ear to hear and then BAM! Jumpy! Which is way louder than either music or dialogue. I also thought the sound effects that were used seemed like they came from a 1001 sound effects CD.
Probably the most painful aspect were the characters. They were like cardboard cutout people. They didn't really do much. They were all stuck doing one action. The dad kept being angry and weird, the mom kept denying crap, and the son kept being abused. The daughter whom the audience is meant to identify with, notices the oddities going on but just gripes about it a little to her male friend. Other than observing, she doesn't do anything until the end of the film. So, we are left with a lead who is just as powerless to make the plot proceed as we, the viewers, are.
Unlike some of the other comments here, I didn't find the plot/ending confusing. I did find it way too late in the film. Satanic rituals are inherently scary! Why didn't they introduce that little tidbit until the ending was already under way?
In the tradition of the shining, the movie is separated into days that flash on the screen. Thank goodness we had at least a chronological plan for the plot, because it might never have resolved itself otherwise. Also, we have a psycho father who we assume is going to kill the kids. Like MANY other horror flicks, only the spooky, isolated boy can see the ghosts. You've got the dark, closed in atmosphere of The Others, minus the slow building tension. There is the finding of the satanic chamber beneath the house ala Amityville Horror. All these stolen concepts are just that, concepts. Darkness never finds its own identity and thus can't offer us anything but a mishmash of others' ideas.
If Anna Paquin wasn't so hot, I wouldn't have held out til the end. Oh, and she's a good actress too. ;)